Rac­ing in­quiry widens

A po­lice in­quiry into har­ness race-fix­ing is now look­ing into races in Auck­land. Po­lice have charged 13 peo­ple in re­la­tion to a long-run­ning in­ves­ti­ga­tion by the Na­tional Or­gan­ised Crime Group into al­leged cor­rup­tion in the har­ness­rac­ing in­dus­try. Yes­ter­day, po­lice said de­tec­tives this week made fur­ther in­quiries in the Auck­land re­gion, in con­junc­tion with in­ves­ti­ga­tors from the Rac­ing In­tegrity Unit (RIU). A num­ber of peo­ple had been in­ter­viewed, and bet­ting anom­alies had been iden­ti­fied in at least one race in May 2018. ‘‘The RIU is con­sid­er­ing charges re­lat­ing to the breach of rules around driver bet­ting in re­la­tion to these anom­alies.’’ Seven­teen prop­er­ties in Can­ter­bury, Manawatu¯ and In­ver­cargill were raided in Septem­ber.